It's the little things.

Normally, on this blog, I don't talk about work. Work is great. I love my job, I love my shop, I love my customers! Hence, really boring.My quirky, more... "interesting" customers, I don't talk about on my blog. They are real people, who could someday stumble upon this, and my snarky remark about someone ordering a no foam cap (baristas are groaning right now) don't need to have their feelings hurt. A little internal eye rolling from me maybe, and an addition to the ever growing file on my computer of funny little customer stories, and, if it's a real doozy, an email to a couple of friends that has them laughing; but that's all. Because that same clueless customer will also bring me sugar cookies shaped like Christmas trees, or hand over free tickets to the zoo, or bring me extra yarn... they are usually nice people, and don't deserve public ranting from me, about things that aren't really that big of a deal, in the grand scheme of things.However.Some people, deserve a public ranting. Some people, I don't mind reading this, and realizing that it applies to them. Consider the following a public service announcement.Retail workers/food servers/etc. are real people, with real feelings. For the love of all that is holy, please acknowledge them as such. I know that I'm just a lowly drone, with no real purpose other than to provide you with whatever it is that you desire, but it would be so incredibly nice of you, to say "hi" when I ask you how you're doing. Turning your back, and gazing out the window, holding your hand up to silence me then plopping into a seat.. um. No. Big. Fat. No. It pisses me off, makes me feel worthless, and is your way of giving me a stern reminder that I am the person that serves you.It's not just here either. How many times do you walk into a store like Meijer, or Kohls, and watch how people treat the greeter or the retail workers? Most people ignore the greater, refusing to say "hi" back. Same with retail. Or, my favorite: Retail worker says, "Hi! How are you today"? And gets the response of, "Just looking".That is the WRONG ANSWER. Someone just took the time, to ask how you are. Sure they're getting paid to be nice to you, but does it really matter? Does it kill you to respond with, "Hi. I'm great thanks, how are you"? Does the extra five seconds of speech hurt?Granted, I have, in the past, been the painfully shy girl that hopes to not be acknowledged. I used to have severe panic attacks trying to go shopping in crowded stores. But I still was polite. I would have pounding in my ears, sweaty palms, and irrational fear, but I was still full of please, thank yous, and hellos. Do you know why? Because it's the right thing to do! We were raised better right? Didn't our parents and grandparents teach us common courtesy?What bugs me about shopping this time of year is being around rude people. At least in my own shop, if someone tries to berate one of my employees, I could say something. If someone is snarky or rude, we can handle it, and even have a little bit of fun with them. (we have a competition to see who can get the most mean/angry people to leave the shop with a smile) But when I'm in a public store, and I watch grown adults belittle retail workers, cashiers, or wait staff, it's infuriating!So, this is my plea to all of you. Be nice! When you're in public and having a bad day, get over yourself! You have no right to spread your venom to someone else just because they are in the position of serving you.And if you come in my shop, and aren't ordering anything, just tell me. I won't get mad! Don't glare, turn away, ignore me, etc. Heck, if you're nice enough, I might whip you up a free sample of something anyway, just to keep myself occupied!Overall, my customers are great. I just had a couple of real winners this morning, on top of having ventured out several times into holiday madness, and witnessing some real nastiness towards workers. It ticks me off.

Since I can't end my blog on a bad note, here are the little things that made me happy:-My Paramore hat is now in 12 queues on Ravelry. 6 people have actually cast on, with several finished items. It's so freaking cool to see happy people with my pattern, and their versions of it.-I saw the most beautiful version of my pivot and jammer hat on ravelry! A Canadian roller girl made them in her team colors of purple and yellow. They look amazing!-We made some caramel hot chocolate with sea salt today and sampled it out. Everyone loved it, and agreed that it tastes like a chocolate covered pretzel.-The calender release is tonight.-Every table had at least 2 people sitting at them today, and every comfy chair and couch was full, for a good 3 hours.-Dill made salsa last night. It was the best home made salsa I have ever had in my life. It helps that he understands that there is no such thing as too much cilantro.

For those of you rushing to finish holiday knitting, I'm going to post my super easy Knit Picks Beanie pattern up tomorrow. A hat that looks awesome, that an average knitter can finish in a day!

2 Responses to “It's the little things.”

Thanks for posting this announcement! I've worked at Costco for 13 years and some people feel it is okay to treat you poorly. I think it makes me try even harder to be nice to my fellow retail/food service workers because I totally understand. I'll try a caramel hot chocolate, yummmmmm!

The thing these people don't realize is that they come across as complete assholes. Case in point, everybody hated the security guards at my college. They were, after all, the people who wrote the parking tickets. I was a security guard for a while. Writing tickets was my job. I didn't necessarily enjoy it, even though I understood that if no tickets were written ever...you can imagine. Most of the time I tried to write warnings. Anyways, when I donned the uniform for some reason I became hard to recognize (I think it was the hat). I regularly had friends treat me like dirt...until they realized it was me. The expression on their face when they realized they were being assholes was priceless.